Business confidence in robotics grows

Robotic process automation (RPA) has clear business benefits, including greater productivity and compliance, new research shows.

Deloitte’s fourth Global Robotics Survey found that 95% of organisations using RPA say the technology has improved productivity, while 93% say it has made compliance processes better.

Another 81% agree it has reduced costs and 77% say it has provided better management information.

According to the Institute For Robotic Process Automation & Artificial Intelligence, RPA is “the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a ‘robot’ to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.”

Any company that has a large number of employees assigned to general knowledge process work, where people are performing high-volume, highly transactional process functions, will boost their capabilities and save money and time with robotic process automation software, the industry body claims.

Interestingly, more businesses are now recognising the productivity benefits of RPA rather than simply implementing it for cost-cutting measures. Only 5% of firms using RPA are just doing so to reduce costs, compared with 21% of businesses that said the same in 2017.

Deloitte’s research also showed a significant rise in management support for RPA, with 81% of business leaders in organisations that have implemented or scaled the technology now supporting the use of robotics, up from 72% in 2017. Additionally, 68% of managers and team leaders are supportive of automation, an increase from half who said the same in 2017.

Commenting on the findings, Justin Watson, robotics and cognitive automation lead at Deloitte, said: “Robots are increasingly becoming a fixture in the workplace, and the value which they bring is now being felt by the vast majority. The challenge now will be for robotics to be scaled effectively in order to truly show their worth in boosting productivity as well as reducing risk, increasing revenue and improving the experience of both customers and employees.“